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Gramophone Award for Colin Matthews

14 September 2017

Last night (13 September) Colin Matthews received the Special Achievement Gramophone Award for his unique contribution to British contemporary music as founder and executive producer of NMC Recordings. Following a wonderful and heartfelt speech from Sir Mark Elder (video & quote extracts below), Colin collected his award and received rapturous applause from the recording industry audience.

Congratulations to our dear Colin!

Extracts from Sir Mark Elder's speech ...

"This is an award for a special achievement – make no bones about it, this is not a lifetime achievement award. This is a life that shows no sign of a diminuendo or a morendo and is still actively going. Everybody knows who it is, it’s Colin. My dear friend and colleague for so many years. One of our most acclaimed composers, a man who can take commissions from any orchestra in the world and as a result be responsible for a catalogue of incredible depth and variety and success. He has, in his very busy life, always been interested in the breadth of his involvement. I’m particularly thinking of his interest in his fellow colleagues, his fellow composers, the generosity Colin shows particularly towards younger composers ...

... Tonight we need to focus on another part, yet another part, of his achievement. 30 years ago nearly, he formed, with Gustav Holst’s daughter Imogen, a remarkable woman, the idea of the Holst Foundation. Now many of you may not be aware of this, Imogen Holst was a visionary and this little plan, these meetings that she and Colin had, turned out to be in the last years of her life. And she wanted the funds to become available, as a result of the success of her father’s music, not to go towards his music but to go towards encouraging other British composers. A wonderful dream, a wonderful aim ... So, 28 years ago Colin formed and launched NMC. NMC, ladies and gentleman – can you believe it? NMC stands for new music cassettes. Now, do you remember cassettes? You know those little things that you put in a machine and they play music? Well, they say they’re coming back, I’m not sure! No wonder it’s now known simply as NMC ...

... Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Thea Musgrave, Judith Weir, Simon Holt, Gerald Barry, Helen Grime, Mark Bowden, Huw Watkins – these are names, just a few of the names, that have contributed towards this extraordinary achievement. Almost 300 titles in the catalogue, ladies and gentleman, which speaks for itself doesn’t it? But nobody must think that NMC feels it’s done it and this is the end, and that we’re celebrating something achieved – far from it. Nobody is sitting on any laurels, they are about to launch a series of new education resources for use in schools. Wonderful idea. How do we get young composers to be interested in writing music – to encourage and develop new composers? But also on a more broader base, to foster the idea that one can interest and inspire younger audiences to absorb new music – the openness of young people is a constant inspiration.

And Colin, I know, believes absolutely that if Imogen was still alive she would be thrilled at what this label has achieved. And it’s not the only thing Colin has done, it’s merely one part of his extraordinary contribution to our musical life. If Imogen Holst, ladies and gentlemen, would have been thrilled, surely we are too and I beg you raise the rafters for Colin Matthews."

Colin's full acceptance speech

"Thank you, Mark, for those wonderfully generous words. I’m not sure about cassettes but we have been thinking about vinyl!

This is an extraordinary special recognition of what we’ve been trying to achieve with NMC for now nearly 30 years. As Mark said, a catalogue approaching 300 titles and that represents music of over 300 composers almost exclusively living British composers. NMC has, from the start, been something special – we set it up as a charity. We also are fairly unique in the fact that the entire catalogue is still available – we never delete anything and we’re expanding into Education, as Mark has said. Our digital presence is increasing too. Last year over 11 million minutes of our music was streamed or downloaded, that’s 21 years of listening. We couldn’t do this without the support of our growing circle of NMC Friends – but in particular we owe a debt to our wonderful, our small but wonderful staff, who are so dedicated – and to a very hugely helpful board of trustees. Thank you, Gramophone, for this award. Thank you to PPL and PRS for sponsoring it. Thank you all."

Watch from 27'55 for Sir Mark Elder's full speech celebrating Colin's acheivement at NMC, followed by Colin accepting the award ...